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President Obama's 11th-hour strategy shift

Obama officials publicly claim the plan was in the works all along. | AP Photo

Top campaign officials authorized the creation of a plan around the time of the convention but chose not to release it before the debates to deny Romney any lines of attack.

Obama’s aides then briefly considered putting it out before the second debate, but they decided it would serve the campaign better as a tool to motivate volunteers and focus media coverage in the final two weeks.

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But the hour is getting late. Obama has a mere 13 days to sell a shrinking group of undecided swing-state independents on his plan — a glossy compendium of previously released proposals on small-business creation, manufacturing policy, green jobs and education proposals that he’ll send to 3.5 million voters starting this week.

Accompanying the brochure is a new 30-second ad that will air in Iowa, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Florida, Ohio, Wisconsin, Virginia, Nevada and Colorado. It features Obama speaking earnestly into the camera, declaring, “There’s just no quit in America,” and directing voters to a revamped “plans” section of his campaign website.

At a post-debate rally in Delray, Fla., on Tuesday, Obama urged voters to do a side-by-side comparison.

“I have laid out a plan for middle-class jobs and security,” said Obama at a rally hours after a strong showing in the last debate. “Unlike Mitt Romney, I’m actually proud to talk about what’s included — I’m actually proud to talk about what’s in it. The math in my plan adds up.”

At the first debate, Romney unveiled a gauzy five-point economic recovery platform and has blasted Obama at all debates for attacking him instead of presenting his own “agenda.”

Other Democrats had publicly demanded the Obama campaign put out a plan, but Obama’s top advisers pride themselves on sticking to the course they navigate without outside interference.

Besides, they reasoned, Obama has plenty of concrete plans already on the books: a jobs bill that has languished on Capitol Hill for more than a year, sweeping education and green energy measures, and the centerpiece of every Obama rally, a deficit reduction plan rooted in letting Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy expire at year’s end.

Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt said the president’s standard whistle-stop speech contained more detail than Romney’s written proposals. “Every voter has in hand what the president’s outlined on the stump throughout the campaign,” LaBolt said.

That may be true, but Democrats, led by Carville and his friend, the pollster Stan Greenberg, have been churning out polling data for weeks showing that Obama was in danger of making the same mistake Romney did — allowing the opposition to define him as a candidate.

The clamor for a plan intensified before the Democratic National Convention in September, when the pair called upon Obama to use his acceptance speech as a mini-State of the Union address laying out a detailed agenda, as Bill Clinton did in 1996.

The Obamabots left (yes, there are less of these dejected cultists posting lately) on these threads only seem to be able to do what Obama and the rest of OFA is doing.......Attack Romney......Poor Obama is all about the small things, just like he said in 2008, as he just tears down Romney and cannot defend his own record and provide vision and leadership our country desperately needs.

The Obama supporters brave enough to stay on the threads should be trying to build up Obama instead of tearing down Romney......I will not hold my breath on that hope........Shame

I know I'm probably one of the few people who actually read the article before skipping right down to the comments, but you have "Bacon Raton, Fla." listed (first page) in place of "Boca Raton, Fla." I did chuckle, but I think you should use an editor, or at least proofread. Autocorrect will only get you so far.

In response to: "Everything was going great for Barack Obama until about 9:04 on the night of Oct. 3, when Mitt Romney startled everybody by refusing to live up to his caricature as The Worst Candidate Ever."

Romney's debate perfomance live up to his reputation of being the worst Etch a Sketch Artist Ever.

Mr. Thrush might want to look up "electoral college" and correct the title of his fantasy.

In_Natures_God_We_Tr...

Sure.....Polls within the margin of error and you are SURE Mr. Obama will win in two weeks......Learn from history (review the polls prior to 2000) and know neither candidate has walked away with this election yet.

Fantasy?.....Fantasy is believing in a candidate who promised CHANGE and brought nothing but the same failed Washington DC political games and money game......Fantasy is believing in a candidate who promised HOPE and only delivered malaise, stagnation, debt, partisan bickering, division and corruption. Fantasy is trying to ignore the lack of progress these past four years and the fact that candidate for the status quo is trying to lie his way into a second term.......

Look in the mirror before you cast accusations on others, poster. If you are voting for Mr. Obama, you have no credibility to claim others are not being, "reality based," as the left proudly proclaims they always function.

We can write off another temporary politician that conned his way into power and attempted to overthrow what the much smarter founding fathers created and what has endured for centuries.

It will take time for the damage done by the person who promised to do-all, fix-all - but only followed his narcissistic desires to leave his personal imprint on the nation's history at the expense of all of us and our children and grandchildren.

I am afraid when he loses, the pain of his legacy will just begin. I can't wait to see his outgoing list of pardons.

Obama, Hillary Clinton and others are liars. Obama must be voted out on 11 6 12. Obama is a big liar.

Obama knew the attack was done by terrorists but Obama and Hillary Clinton insisted it was caused by a you tube video. Obama and Hillary must be voted out. They are lying to all of us. They think we are stupid.

You see the photo that accompanies this article. See the diversity there. That is the reason Romney could never defeat Obama - NEVER! He has shown himself to be just what he is, an out of touch plutocrat who has only one thing on his mind, Mitt Romney. He cares nothing for the world around him, or at large, He is robot serving only one God, servce-to-self!!!

I have to agree with the first paragraph's characterization of Mitt Romney as the "worst candidate ever".

In the first debate, I was like Obama; just plain startled to hear Romney's diatribe. Romney really believes the stuff he is spouting. He believes by applying his brand of management technique to the country's issues, it will solve something. Sorry Mitt, one can only run companies successfully by accomplishing goals through other people. Your self centered, egotistical approach won't run a country.

Let's put ourselves in the Obama Political Think Tank for a second and think this through:

Choice one - If we put BHOs real agenda out there the majority of American voters will run from him to vote for the other guy, or

Choice two - if we put out a plausible plan that electorate will embrace and vote for, BHOs blitzkrieg-like "transformation" of America will be torpedoed by the nuisance of untenable (to him) campaign promises.

The days of believing BHO just because he says something are long over for aware voters.

Personally, I'm still waiting to see the 2008 campaign promise that taxes won't increase for 95% of Americans. My income is way down and taxes are way up thanks to nothing being done to help the economy the last 4 years.

"It's the economy stupid!" I'll help give you the freedom to play golf anytime you want since you did not hang around Washington DC to "work" with Congress.

You can count on President Obama to do the wrong thing on the economy every time. Just as he has run fiscal deficits that have led to a $6 trillion net increase in the federal government's debt in the last four years, he has also aggravated the long-term fiscal gap, which is over $200 trillion, and reflects the unfunded liabilities of the entitlement programs and federal pension obligations. Obama has been like a potted plant every time he has had a chance to aright the national government's fiscal accounts. He knows nothing about business or economics, and has not learned anything with the on the job training he has received as president. Except for when making things worse, as with Obamacare, he always takes the line of least resistance in federal spending and regulatory policy. There is no sign that he will become a competent and responsible steward of the economy if voters give him a second term. Gov. Romney is a much better alternative, and will likely do better if voters give him the chance.

Both candidates have emphad criticizing his opponent in order to win. Romney thought all he had to do was say, "We as a country can do better than this," and people would flood his rallies. It proved not to be the case, for he utterly failed to prove he could do better. When President Obama's rallies dwarfed his and polls showed our president pulling away, Romney decided to go a little beyond empty, generalized bumper-sticker speeches and say some things he'd do as president. That got him in trouble because what Romney, Ryan and the Republican Party want to do is not popular with most voters (nor should it be). Finding most voters are sick of Republicans redistributing our national wealth to the richest and most powerful; finding voters want no part of voucherizing Medicare and privatizing Social Security to pay for those tax cuts, Romney started dancing and flip-flopping like crazy into the new, new Romney (13.0 version), who claims he never advanced huge tax cuts for the rich et cetera.

President Obama, I believe, has been humbled by the cynical Republican politics of the last four years that saw Republicans obstruct or try to obstruct everything that would help our country recovery from the Republican stock market crash and Great Recession under Bush/Cheney. Republicans put poltics before country and the 1% before the whole country. President Obama saw how hard it is to get things done in that terrible situation and I believe didn't want to over-promise and disappoint supporters. Getting rid of Republicans on Capitol Hill is the single best thing voters can do to speed up our economic recovery. That and just say NO to Republican presidential candidates like Romney that think they can flip-flop and blatantly lie his way into the White House.